Natchez Trace Parkway - Stories (U.S. National Park Service)

A section of Old Trace in Mississippi at Milepost 222.

National Park Service

There are many preserved sections of the Old Natchez Trace that can been visited along the Parkway. This one is found at Milepost 222 in north Mississippi.

Sections of the Old Trace are the common ground that connect us to the stories of people across centuries. The most celebrated travelers of the Natchez Trace were farmers and boatmen from the Ohio River regions of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky floating supplies down to ports in Natchez and New Orleans at the beginning of the 1800s. Regardless of where they came from, they were collectively known as "Kaintucks." But the story of the Natchez Trace is not just about the Kaintucks. The Old Trace ran through the heart of Choctaw and Chickasaw country. It also ran through a series of mounds that had been built by people over the previous 2000 years and through a diverse terrain of swamps, rivers, and rolling hills that provided significant obstacles for travelers.